The global economy is on a high-wire act, forcing Chief Financial Officers to pivot from mere resilience to strategic architecture. From the critical decision to "kill the budget" in favor of Continuous Planning, to demanding a measured ROI from AI, here are the five non-negotiable moves for leaders on both sides of the Atlantic who are ready to seize the 2026 agenda.
The script has been torn up. If 2025 was about clinging to resilience, 2026 is about architecting value while the global economy continues its high-wire act.
For CFOs on both sides of the Atlantic, from the City of London to Wall Street, the old playbook is obsolete. You are no longer just the steward of capital; you are the enterprise strategist, the chief technologist, and the top risk officer. The difference between companies that merely survive and those that dominate in 2026 will boil down to five core decisions.
Here is your strategic playbook.
The consensus among your C-suite peers is clear: don’t expect smooth sailing. While global economic growth may moderate, the US economy is expected to navigate “choppy waters”, with an overall real GDP growth forecast of 1.8% in 2026.
The good news? A disinflationary trend suggests the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have room to cut rates, with the BoE potentially bringing its rate down to 2.75% in 2026. This is the long-awaited break on the cost of capital.
The non-negotiable risk? Tariffs and trade policy are top-of-mind, with data suggesting that without their impact, price growth at your organizations would be roughly 25% lower in 2026. This is not a supply chain issue; it’s a direct profitability challenge.
The Pro Move: Stop stress-testing for a recession; stress-test for volatility.
Wargame Pricing: If you’re a US company, anticipate continued consumer softness in discretionary purchases and be ready to follow the lead of others who are re-routing product to Europe.
Protect Liquidity: Forecast models must account for a potential lag in working capital, explicitly modeling for longer accounts receivable collection times. Cash is king, and you need a stronger runway than ever.
AI is no longer a conversation for the CIO, it’s a line item on your P&L, and it’s time to demand a measurable return. The optimism around AI is high, with 67% of finance leaders feeling more positive about the technology than last year. Yet, adoption is leveling off as organizations struggle to move from planning to actual production.
Finance chiefs who are already in the production phase of their AI journey are nearly three times more likely to see a high impact from the technology.
Where are they winning?
Forecast Precision: 58% of finance leaders are leveraging AI for more sophisticated financial forecasting.
Knowledge & Efficiency: The most common current use case is knowledge management (49% adoption), helping teams rapidly organize and retrieve mission-critical information.
The Pro Move: Forget the hype. Your biggest bottlenecks are data quality and a severe shortage of technical/data literacy skills on your team. This year, your mission is to transform the finance team from mere users of technology to “prompt architects” and “AI risk stewards”. Governance is not a brake on innovation; it is the foundation for it.
The annual, static budget is a relic of a bygone era. In a world defined by volatility from geopolitical shifts to supply chain fragility, a plan is obsolete before the ink is dry.
Forward-thinking finance organizations are transitioning to a Continuous Planning model. This is less about eternal forecasting and more about shifting your team’s focus:
Instead of spending 80% of time collecting and reconciling data, they can spend 80% of their time on analysis and strategic action.
It is a fundamental shift from merely describing the past to prescribing the future.
Case in Point: By unifying data and enabling continuous planning, some organizations have reported a 3–5x faster forecasting cycle and instant scenario modeling capabilities for board-level support.
The Pro Move: Mandate rolling forecasts, especially for cash flow. Equip your FP&A team with platforms that can run sophisticated, multi-variant scenarios that test every major assumption, allowing you to steer the business with precision and confidence.
Yes, revenue growth is still the top business priority for nearly half of executives. But the days of unfettered, high-cost growth are over. Your success in 2026 will be defined by the ability to expand margins.
Leading finance executives are planning for their SG&A budgets to grow more slowly than their 2026 revenue growth rate. This reflects a concerted effort to “right size overheads” even while pursuing top-line expansion.
Surgical Cost Discipline: This isn’t a blunt cost-cutting exercise; it’s a strategic prioritization, trimming spend in areas like corporate IT, HR, and marketing, while doubling down on investments that differentiate the business.
The Pricing Gap: 86% of finance chiefs plan to increase emphasis on pricing. If you’re not one of them, you are leaving money on the table.
The Pro Move: Instill a cost-conscious culture throughout the organization. Use your data to link every overhead spend to strategic outcomes. The CFO who can deliver growth with a shrinking SG&A ratio will be the one setting the agenda.
Cybersecurity is no longer sequestered in the IT department, it is a financial imperative and a risk you must co-own. With over 75% of CFOs now accountable for data strategy, the security of financial and operational data sits squarely on your desk.
For the second year running, data security and privacy is a top concern for finance leaders. A breach is a risk to financial continuity, investor confidence, and regulatory standing.
The Pro Move: Partner with your CISO to ensure recovery capabilities are as robust as preventative measures. Your job is to quantify the cost of a cyber event in terms of P&L impact, regulatory fines, and reputational damage. Only by treating cyber resilience as a non-negotiable financial insurance policy can you protect the balance sheet in 2026.